Reconstruction of the Human Brain Functional Structure Based on the Electroencephalography Data

Abstract

New method for the data analysis was proposed, making it possible to transform multichannel time series into the spatial structure of the system under study. The method was successfully used to investigate biological and physical objects based on the magnetic field measurements. In this paper we further develop this method to analyze the data of the experiments where the electric field is measured. The brain activity in the state of subject “eyes closed” was registered by the 19-channel electric encephalograph, using the 10-20 scheme. The electroencephalograms were obtained in resting state and with arbitrary hands motions. Detailed multichannel spectra were obtained by the Fourier transform of the whole time series. All spectral data revealed the broad alpha rhythm peak in the frequency band 9-12 Hz. For all spectral components in this band the inverse problem was solved, and the 3D map of the brain activity was calculated. The inverse problem was solved in elementary current dipole model for one-layer spherical conductor without any restrictions for the source position. The combined analysis of the magnetic resonance image and the brain functional structure leads to the conclusion that this structure generally corresponds to the modern knowledge about the alpha rhythm. The 3D map of the vector field of the dominating directions of the alpha rhythm sources was also generated. The proposed method can be used to study the spatial distribution of the brain activity in any spectral band of the electroencephalography data.